Baby, Come On
by argentenipinkini
Summary: She's a pretty girl...she's always falling down, and I think I just fell in love with her . Derek finds Casey all alone in a terrible state. He comforts her. Dasey


A/N: This is a one-shot Dasey, inspired by the amazing song by +44 (making it a song fic…without the lyrics). Please go listen to it before reading this, or after. Doesn't really matter-- Oh, and if you really like it, I might consider more, I'm just scared that I might ruin this if I continue. Tell me your thoughts.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show _Life With Derek_, or _+44_.

--Baby, Come On--

There she was, slumped down against the wall on the floor, her head bent forward as if she couldn't bear to keep it up. There were three empty bottles of beer sitting next to her, but the one that she had clasped in her hands, in her lap, it was new. She had only taken a few sips so far. He just watched her for a moment before he decided to go over to her. She looked so, _sad_, sitting there alone with her beer. He couldn't even begin to fathom why it was that she was at this party, sitting in an empty hall by herself, apparently drinking her sorrows.

Finally, after about two minutes, he found himself leaving his spot at the end of the hallway where the stairs were and walking slowly towards her. She didn't seem to hear him coming, though. She didn't even move. He called her name.

"Casey." She didn't respond. She just stayed in the same position as before. Soon he was standing right in front of her. She still didn't seem to notice. He bent down so that he was on his knees. "Casey," he repeated, softly.

This time, she must have heard him. She slowly lifted her head and looked at him. Derek took in a deep breath when she did this. He wasn't expecting her to look at him so, intensely, when he called to her. He wasn't expecting her to look so, pretty.

Of course, he had always known that Casey was a pretty girl; he wasn't going to deny that. She could get just as many guys as he could girls, if she tried. That was the difference between him and her. He used his good looks and charm to get girls to hook up with him. She used her beauty in a more subtle way; Casey wasn't into quick hookups and a couple dates. At seventeen, she was looking for love. She wasn't expecting to find the love of her life or anything, but she didn't like the idea of speed dating like Derek did. Their different outlook on love was only one of their many differences, though, and hardly the most important one.

I was a known fact that Casey wasn't a party girl. She just wasn't into it. Sure, Derek was pretty sure that deep down, buried not far under her skin, Casey enjoyed being a little wilder than her normal self. He knew she liked the thrill of being spontaneous and crazy; there just weren't enough instances when she was either of those things. She was what Derek liked to call a naughty/good girl. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she used to go to an all girls private school, maybe it was just him thinking too much. All he knew was that Casey wasn't really as uptight as everyone thought. She just had a reputation to keep up, just like him. So, in replace of being a rebel like he was, she used dramatics to get noticed. And she did get noticed.

So, even though he always liked to think of his some-what sibling as a hypocrital prude, he never expected to find her in a drunken stupor at an out of control party on a Friday night that he knew she would usually happily spend studying.

She was still staring at him, and all he could do was copy her. He wondered what she was thinking. He was thinking that something awful must have happened. Casey hardly ever drank alcohol. She might have a couple sips from her best friend Emily's drink, he knew, but three bottles? And working on a fourth one?

"Casey, what are you doing?" he asked her. Her eyes were such a dark blue. It must have been because of her dilated pupils. No matter, he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from hers.

She didn't answer him, just continued to look into his eyes. She made him feel naked, but he didn't know why.

_She's the one that's drunk. Why is she making me feel like the exposed one?_ he thought.

"What happened?" he asked. He put his hands on her knees, hoping that maybe that would get him a response. An old familiar "De-rek!" would do, and then he would know that she was all right. Then he would know that she wasn't hurt, or even worse, broken, in some symbolical way.

She still didn't answer him. It was starting to scare him, this silent demeanor she was showing him.

_Why isn't she answering me?_

"Casey, what's wrong?" he asked more forcefully this time, moving his hands from her knees to her shoulders and gently shaking her. This time, she shook her head. She didn't move her mouth, but she finally moved for him.

_Why is she shaking her head? What is _that_ supposed to mean?_

He searched her eyes some more, they were so gorgeous, definitely her best feature. They were just so, so lovely, even now when she was so disoriented.

She made another movement. She lifted her bottle and put it to her lips. Derek narrowed his eyes when she did this. He frowned as she took a small sip. Suddenly, he was angry. If she didn't notice the change in his expression, she had to know that he was mad after he grabbed the beer from her hands and threw it down the hall from them.

It crashed on the floor, but didn't break, instead just rolled for a bit before hitting the side of the hall and stopping. They both watched it for some reason.

"Why did you do that?" Derek moved his head quickly to look at her. She had finally spoken. His eyes immediately lightened.

"Are you serious?" he asked. "I take your booze away and suddenly you find your voice?" He tried to make a joke so that she would smile. He wanted to see her smile; needed to see her smile. She was a pretty girl, even right then, but she was stunning when she smiled.

"Why are you here, Derek?" she asked. Her hair had fallen into her face, and it was slightly covering her eyes. Before he answered her, he reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. He accidentally touched her face when he did so, and couldn't help what he did next. His heart skipped a beat. Instead of pulling back, he left his hand at the side of her face, caressing her right cheek.

"I don't know," he said. She looked confused.

"What?"

"I don't know why I'm here," he said. She nodded, remembering her question. She didn't seem to care that his hand was on her face. He was surprised that she didn't question him. He himself didn't even know why he was doing it, it just seemed right.

"I think that was my last bottle," she said.

"Good. You don't need anymore."

"Yes I do," she said weakly. He just shook his head.

"I hate this place," she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I hate this town, high school, my _friends_. I just want to leave."

"You don't mean that."

"Yes, yes I do," she said. Her eyes started to glisten. His stomach started to hurt, but maybe it was just his heart.

"No you don't," he repeated.

"What do you care? Are you trying to rescue me, or something?" she joked. For a second, her eyes crinkled and she almost smiled, but right before she did, she stopped. Her smile turned back into a frown. It hurt Derek just to watch her. He realized that for some reason, she _couldn't_ smile. And then, he felt something damp on his hand. She was crying.

Derek didn't know what he was feeling, but for some reason, when he saw her tears, he felt like something was squeezing his heart. For some reason, this girl, this girl that he had known for years now, had found pleasure in torturing and annoying, she was making him feel something. Something strong. He moved his other hand so that now he was holding her face with both of his hands.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. He wiped under her eyes with his thumbs.

_Why isn't she pulling away from me? Why is she letting me touch her like this?_

While she cried, an onslaught of images hit Derek. He thought back to the past few weeks. Something had changed in his mind. For some reason, every time he touched Casey, whether it be while they were wrestling for control of the TV remote or just plain wrestling, he felt a spark. He shivered every time she would poke him, or shove him.

He loved her voice, the sound of her yelling at him, bossing him around. He especially liked when they would start yelling at each other powerfully and then somehow end up practically nose to nose. They would be so close that if either of them were to move, they would be able to touch lips and kiss.

Lately, even though they had been fighting like that for years, he had felt a strong urge to move his face that extra centimeter. He had been wanting for weeks now to just grab her, preferably in a fit of anger, and smash his lips against hers, turning their fury into reckless passion. He liked to picture him doing exactly that, pretending that he was the hero, and she his heroine. It was cheesy, but he somehow knew that Casey would like that he thought like that.

True, he had no idea if Casey had noticed his strange behavior towards her lately or if she even ever thought about the two of them together in any sort of intimate way, but that didn't stop him from thinking that she would enjoy his kiss. He knew that she loved those old classic movies where the leading man would smash his lips against the leading lady in what some would call the "smoosh" kiss. He had even watched some of Breakfast at Tiffany's with her once, so he knew that she loved the end when George Peppard goes after Audrey and then kisses her ardently in the rain.

That became one of his favorite fantasies: kissing Casey fervently in the rain.

As he was thinking all this, Casey continued to cry. He still didn't know why. Eventually, he found himself moving closer to her, and she actually wrapped her arms around his neck without him putting them there.

He couldn't help but grin into her hair as she cried into his neck. If anyone had told him yesterday that Casey MacDonald, his stepsister, would be crying and he would be the one consoling her with her wrapped up in his arms, he would have scoffed at the mere idea of it. Casey didn't voluntarily come close to him, and she sure didn't hug him.

_He_ didn't hug in general, at least the Derek that she knew didn't, unless he was hugging his little sister Marti, the only girl that it was proven could soften his hard heart. He had to keep his ever changing feelings towards her a secret. She couldn't know that her stepbrother was turning into a "smoosh" kiss dreaming sap. It would ruin his reputation for one, and he was sure that she would never reciprocate his feelings.

"Stop crying, Casey," he told her. "Or, at least tell me _why_ you're crying." She just held on to him tighter and sniffled a bit.

_Something _really_ bad must have happened. But what?_

"Come on, Casey. Quit it. I can't deal with you crying," he said and held her tighter.

Abruptly it occurred to him what they were doing. They were alone in a dark hallway with beer bottles littered around them, at a party that was still going on full blast one floor below. There they were, and they were hugging. Casey was actually sitting in his lap--Derek Venturi's apparently comforting lap. This would never happen in the real world. He must be dreaming.

"Am I dreaming?" he asked aloud. He didn't expect Casey to answer him, but she seemed to stop making noise and looked up him. Her blue eyes were all watery and there was mascara smudged under her bottom lashes. She slowly nodded 'no'.

He realized it was stupid of him to think that he was dreaming. He really was holding her close to him and she really was crying in his arms.

_Maybe she doesn't know it's me_, he thought. _She _has_ had a lot to drink. Maybe she thinks I'm someone else. I probably look familiar to her, and that's why she's letting me hold her. Yes, that's right. She recognizes me, she knows I'm familiar to her, but she just doesn't know that it's _me_. She would never willingly let me touch her like this._

He just kept thinking these crazy thoughts while she clung onto him. She was still crying, but she was no longer making any real noise. The tears were just slipping silently from her eyes, soaking both of their shirts.

He decided that if she didn't remember who he was, then there was know harm in doing what he had wanted to do ever since she had looked up at him earlier, with her big, sad eyes.

He pulled away from her so that she was forced to move her head from his shoulder. He looked down at her, and she looked up at him. He reached with his right hand and took her chin in his hand. His eyes kept looking at her lips, her beautiful lips. Then, he started to bend his head towards her and pull her head closer to his. Her eyes widened when she saw him do this, but she didn't say or do anything to stop him.

Within a second, there lips were touching. It wasn't a "smoosh" kiss like in his daydreams, just a light caress, but it was enough to make Derek sigh with pleasure. Since she didn't immediately pull away, he moved his hand from her chin to her hair and then started to kiss her again, placing slow kisses on her lips, and then her cheeks and her forehead, and she let him.

He tried to kiss every inch of her face. He could taste her tears, but it made him want her even more. When he found her lips once more, he was surprised at how accepting she was. It seemed like she was kissing him just as hungrily as himself. He could tell that she was enjoying it immensely, at least.

All in all, it was wonderful. It was the greatest feeling in the world for Derek. He loved kissing Casey. And the amazing part was that it was even better than anything he had ever imagined.

Yes, he had been wanting to kiss her for a short while now, but he always thought that it was just a passing fancy and that right after he did, he would realize it was all just a big mistake. He thought that once he kissed her, he would get over whatever crush he had. He was sure that when their lips touched there wouldn't be anything there. He was so wrong.

He shivered when she moved her hands from his hair to his back. He hadn't even realized that she had moved her hands to his head until she moved them.

It was all so weird. They were step siblings who supposedly hated each other and they were kissing. Not only kissing, but full on making out. He briefly thought that maybe it would seem like he was taking advantage of her in her drunken state. The only thing was, she didn't seem to be drunk anymore. It seemed to him like all of her crying had sobered her up a little.

He pulled away all of a sudden.

"Casey?" he asked. He just remembered something. She had said his name earlier. She had said his name earlier! She knew who he was! He had been kidding himself, thinking that she didn't realize who he was. She knew all along.

"Derek?" she asked quietly, unsure of what he was asking.

_Oh wow_, he thought.

She was kissing him, _willingly_? He decided that it was too good of a thing to argue.

"Never mind," he said, and then pulled her back to him. They started to kiss once more, but then he stopped them once again. This time he just moved his head so that it was on her shoulder. Now they were just hugging. She didn't seem to mind; she hugged him back, firmly, as if she too knew that something big was happening.

At this point, their rocky past didn't matter. Now, all they had was a bright future. That is, if she remembered the next day. Derek could only hope. At least she wasn't crying anymore. He couldn't deal with anymore crying. Derek Venturi didn't do crying.

"You know what, Case?" he said delicately.

"Hmm?" she breathed into his neck.

"I think I just fell in love with you."

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A/N: So, what do ya think? If you listen to the song, it makes this story so much better, trust me. I know you don't find out how Casey ended up so depressed and lonely, but you didn't really have to, I guess…


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